Best Woods for Drawer Construction

When building a piece of furniture (one that includes drawers) from a specific hardwood such as maple or cherry, should the internal boxes of the drawers also be built out of such an expensive wood? Or could a less expensive wood be substituted appropriately without looking out of place?

Consider that most modern pieces use plywood for the drawer bottoms. If you want the drawer bottoms to match the sides of the drawer, they should be made out of similar materials, and finding cherry or maple plywood is quite difficult. Of course, one could create the bottom drawer panels by clamping a number of boards together, but is it worth the expense?

Typically in such cases, I'll build drawer boxes out of poplar, a stable and much less expensive wood, and then use either birch or regular sanded plywood for the drawer bottom. The poplar provides a nice contrast to the hardwood when the drawers are opened, and I don't feel that the difference in color between the hardwood cherry or maple and poplar looks out of place at all. Conversely, when using half-blind dovetails, the contrast in color actually seems to accentuate the craftsmanship.

(c) 2012 Chris Baylor, licensed to About.com Inc.

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Source: http://woodworking.about.com/b/2012/07/20/best-woods-for-drawer-construction.htm

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